Tissue-resident macrophages in the intestine are long lived and defined by Tim-4 and CD4 expression

Abstract

Intestinal macrophages represent the last tissue macrophages thought to entirely adhere to van Furth's decades-old continuous monocyte replenishment model. In this study, Shaw et al. identify a population of intestinal macrophages that are long lived and maintained independently of monocyte replenishment over long periods of time.

Abstract

A defining feature of resident gut macrophages is their high replenishment rate from blood monocytes attributed to tonic commensal stimulation of this site. In contrast, almost all other tissues contain locally maintained macrophage populations, which coexist with monocyte-replenished cells at homeostasis. In this study, we identified three transcriptionally distinct mouse gut macrophage subsets that segregate based on expression of Tim-4 and CD4. Challenging current understanding, Tim-4 ⁺CD4 ⁺ gut macrophages were found to be locally maintained, while Tim-4 ^–CD4 ⁺ macrophages had a slow turnover from blood monocytes; indeed, Tim-4 ^–CD4 ^– macrophages were the only subset with the high monocyte-replenishment rate currently attributed to gut macrophages. Moreover, all macrophage subpopulations required live microbiota to sustain their numbers, not only those derived from blood monocytes. These findings oppose the prevailing paradigm that all macrophages in the adult mouse gut rapidly turn over from monocytes in a microbiome-dependent manner; instead, these findings supplant it with a model of ontogenetic diversity where locally maintained subsets coexist with rapidly replaced monocyte-derived populations.

Graphical Abstract